The present application relates generally to a cleaning apparatus. More specifically, the present application relates to a rotary disc scrubber apparatus having random orbital movement.
Rotary disc type scrubbers have been used for decades to clean hard floor surfaces such as tile, linoleum, and concrete. These hard floor surfaces are often uneven which presents challenges to the scrubber and can result in a floor that is not cleaned in a uniform fashion. One approach to cleaning uneven floors is to provide a flexible coupling between the cleaning element and the cleaning head assembly such as a gimbaled pad holder, or scrub brush coupler. The gimbaled design allows some degree of freedom to the brush allowing it to tilt in response to the uneven floor.
Another challenge to conventional floor cleaning is excess water consumption. In the past, it was a widely held belief that the more water that was applied to the floor, the cleaner it could be scrubbed. Within the last few years, this notion has fallen from favor as the floor cleaning industry has become more ecologically conscious. Various approaches have been developed by floor equipment companies using rotary type scrubbers as discussed below.
One approach to the challenge of excess water consumption was developed by the Tennant Company of Minneapolis, Minn. and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,827, U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,332, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,662. Tennant refers to the technology covered by these patents as the FaST™ foam scrubbing technology. Tennant promotional materials represent that this technology increases scrubbing productivity up to 30% for rotary type scrubbers. However, this rotary type scrubber still requires the use of splash skirts to prevent excess water from expelling onto unintended surfaces.
Yet another approach to the challenge of excess water consumption was developed by Windsor Industries of Denver, Colo. and is referred to as the Aqua-Mizer™ technology, which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,025,835 entitled “Scrubbing Machine Passive Recycling.” Windsor promotional materials represent that this technology increases run-time productivity by 35-50% per tank fill up. However, the rotary type scrubbers that utilize this technology still require the use of splash skirts to prevent excess water from expelling onto unintended surfaces.
A different approach to the challenge of excess water consumption has been developed by Penguin Wax Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan. Penguin offers a scrubber called the “Shuttlematic” model numbers SQ 200 and SQ 240. Instead of the rotary motion of the aforementioned floor scrubbers, the Shuttlematic uses two flat pads positioned perpendicular to the direction of travel of the machine. Penguin promotional materials represent that the Shuttlematic has longer run time, less power consumption, and no water splash. The Shuttlematic does not have splash skirts. Another shuttle type design without splash skirts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,472,208. The shuttle motion of the '208 Patent is different from the shuttle motion of the Shuttlematic.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned scrubbers, there is still a need for an improved floor cleaning machine that will conserve water without compromising cleaning quality.